At the owner’s meetings in Cooperstown, New York, Commissioner Bud Selig defended his decision to suspend Alex Rodriguez through the 2014 season for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal, calling it “eminently fair”. Selig added he was “trying to be fair, trying to be logical and rational”, per ESPN’s Mike Mazzeo.

As evidenced by his appearance in nine of the Yankees’ ten games since his return, Rodriguez has appealed his suspension. He is hitting .278/.350/.417 with one home run in 40 plate appearances since returning on August 5.

Rodriguez was one of 14 players suspended in the Biogenesis scandal and received the harshest penalty with a 211-game suspension. Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun received a 65-game suspension. Twelve players, including Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz and Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta, received 50-game suspensions.

Bud also thought it was eminently fair when the owners colluded to limit player salaries. He thought it was fair when he helped screw the Yawkeys in the Red Sox sale. He thought it was fair when he tried to screw Minnesota out of the Twins. The list goes on. Bud Selig is an utter scumbag.

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Yo Don – I think he gets 150 games, beginning at the start of next season and joins the Yanks for the wildcard run.

2 true things – I just got somthing called ‘Blackstar’ that I think you’d enjoy. And I was once ‘frisk and searched’ by terror cops whilst smoking a doob in a car with a couple of Mets’ fans friends under a bridge (free parking) on our way to old Shea Stadium. After searching the underside of my car with a mirror on a stick they made us throw the roach in a storm drain and asked where the stash was. I had hidden the stash and the other 2 guys didn’t know where it was and I played as dumb as they reallyi were. Not only was I eating a knish within 15 minutes, but we were high the whole way home. MO GREEN! (less brown)

As I’ve said before, the owners and players made an agreement as to what the punishment is for those who break the rules. With ARod they’ve shown that their word is pretty much meaningless, as it pretty much always is with all owners. Without the force of law to prevent them, they’ll rob you blind and say it’s fair because they can. It doesn’t matter how unpopular ARod is, the punishment has to fit the crime and you have to do it by the book.

True but incomplete. Rose expected to be reinstated at some point after serving a period of time on the ineligible list since he planned to apply for it a year after his banning. He probably should not have made the assumption that being reinstated would be relatively straightforward for him after accepting the ban.

Also the banning at the time DID NOT prevent him from being eligible for the Hall Of Fame. that came later in 91.

OK, so you bet on your team to win against an opponent. You use every arm and every bench player available (all arms are available as you rest them a day or two prior) to make sure you win your bet. Because of this these players are not available in the games prior and after the game you bet on…..am I the only one who sees how bad this is?

Betting on you team, whether to win or lose, is equally bad.

dan1111 - Aug 16, 2013 at 6:45 AM

Also, as has been pointed out before, why take his word for it that he only bet on the team to win? He lied about his behavior in the past.

zidanevalor - Aug 15, 2013 at 11:35 PM

The weird part was that all Selig had to do to make the suspension seem “less arbitary” is to add one more game. Then he could have said that he suspended A-Rod 50 games for a first offense under the drug policy and one year (162 games) for “baseball reasons”.

I mean, I wouldn’t have agreed with it, but it took me about 30 seconds to think of that.

He didn’t suspend him for 211 games. He suspended him for the entire 2013 season and the entire 2014 season. I really wish people would stop reporting this 211 amount as it’s wrong.

Here’s the statement from Selig, bolded the important parts:

Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced today that third baseman Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the 2013 Championship Season and Postseason and the entire 2014 Championship Season for violations of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program and the Basic Agreement.

Rodriguez’s discipline under the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program is based on his use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including Testosterone and human Growth Hormone, over the course of multiple years. Rodriguez’s discipline under the Basic Agreement is for attempting to cover-up his violations of the Program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the Office of the Commissioner’s investigation. The suspension, which will become effective on Thursday, August 8th, will cover 211 Championship Season games and any 2013 Postseason games in which Rodriguez otherwise would have been eligible to play.

Under the terms of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, Rodriguez’s suspension will be stayed until the completion of his appeal if Rodriguez files a grievance challenging his discipline.

How Selig can say the suspension is “fair” when the suspension doesn’t even have a definite length is beyond me.

The most salient argument against the length of the suspension is that Melky Cabrera, who doctored a fake website to try and avoid a suspension, only got 50 games, the exact same suspension that he would have gotten had he just accepted his PED suspension. That is a clear, recent case of a player getting busted for PEDs and interfering with or deceiving the MLB during an investigation without any additional punishment. Even Ryan Braun only got 65 games, despite having been caught a second time (the first time having resulted in no suspension due to procedural irregularities). Even if MLB can argue that A-Rod interfered with an investigation and lied, they don’t seem to have any valid argument why what he did is 4+ times worse than what Cabrera did.

The essence of the argument Selig won’t say is that A-Rod was the MLB’s golden boy, the un-Barry Bonds, the one who was supposed to legitimize the HR record and help Bud recover from his legacy as the steroid Commissioner, but whose public steroid confession and megalomania have apparently embarrassed Selig, making Selig want to ban him out of spite. Don’t get me wrong – A-Rod is a jerk and a cheater. But neither of these justifies Selig handing out the longest suspension (to my knowledge) of his tenure, however much he feels A-Rod wronged him.

I’m surprised Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton aren’t holding rallies in New York speaking about how minorities are punished more than Caucasians. Didn’t I read only one of the recent batch of suspenders were Caucasian? Looking at the mug shot of A-Rod reminds me of that other non-likable Yankee…. Roger Clemens who was so defiant. And won. And I believe him also. He didn’t take steroids. It was his wife.

Who is it fair for you who don’t treat you or the fans or the players correctly or the crew chief and staff correctly and the newspaper reporters and media reporters and cable people correctly and the way you corrupt the game and the sport itself when all of this was done way back and you did nothing about and now you decide to clean it up isn’t it too late for that now shouldn’t you have done that years ago.Your not even a fair man yourself.Why should people bother coming to your games or watching your sport for what they get paid for by season ticket holders and box holders too.You cheated on everybody and that’s all there is too it accept the full responsibility and grow up bitchface.You did this to yourself and everyone else now pay the hefty price you must pay or do what Jerry Sandusky did land in jail.